73. 'Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey'

Main Writer: Lennon Recorded: June 27, July 1 and 23, 1968 Released: November 25, 1968Not released as a single

In 1980, Lennon said that this White Album explosion of blistering guitars and barking vocals was about his relationship with Yoko Ono: "Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love. . . . Everybody was sort of tense around us. You know, 'What is she doing here at the session?'"

But McCartney believed the song was really about heroin, which Lennon and Ono had begun taking without telling the others. "John started talking about fixes and monkeys," he said. "It was a harder terminology, which the rest of us weren't into." Looking back, Lennon said, "We sniffed a little when we were in real pain. We took 'H' because of what the Beatles and their pals were doing to us."